4.  The applicant was born in 1975 and lives in Wrocław, Poland.
5.  On 30 November 1999 the applicant was arrested by the police.
6.  On 2 December 1999 the Wrocław District Court (Sąd Rejonowy) decided to detain the applicant on remand in view of the reasonable suspicion that he had been drug trafficking.
7.  On 17 February 2000 the Wrocław Regional Court (Sąd Okręgowy) decided to prolong the applicant’s pre-trial detention. It found that the strong suspicion against the applicant, the severity of the expected penalty, and the need to secure the proper course of the investigation, justified holding him in detention.
8.  On 17 May and 6 June 2000 the Wrocław Court of Appeal (Sąd Apelacyjny), upon an application by the Wrocław Regional Prosecutor (Prokurator Okręgowy), further prolonged the applicant’s pre‑trial detention. It reiterated the original grounds for keeping him in custody and added that the complexity of the case and the large number of co‑accused justified the fear that, once released, the applicant would attempt to influence witnesses or abscond.
9.  On 17 August 2000 the applicant was indicted before the Wrocław Regional Court.
10.  On 20 November 2000 the Wrocław Regional Court held a hearing at which it further prolonged the applicant’s detention until 31 January 2001. The court gave the following reasons:
“The majority of the adduced evidence has not yet been taken, and it is impossible to do this by 30 November 2000.”
11.  At the hearing held on 15 January 2001 the trial court again prolonged the applicant’s detention until 31 March 2001 giving the following reasons:
“The grounds on which the detention on remand was ordered are still valid. At the same time it is impossible to consider all the evidence before the end of the period for which the detention had been previously prolonged; that is by 31 January 2001.”
12.  At the hearings on 22 June and 20 August 2001, the Wrocław Regional Court prolonged the applicant’s detention, repeating the justification given in both previous decisions.
13.  Subsequently, as the length of the applicant’s detention had reached the statutory time-limit of 2 years laid down in Article 263 § 3 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (Kodeks postępowania karnego), the Regional Court applied to the Wrocław Court of Appeal asking for the applicant’s detention to be prolonged beyond that term. On 14 November 2001 the Court of Appeal granted the request.
14.  The applicant’s numerous applications for release and appeals against decisions concerning the prolongation of his detention were to no avail.
15.  On 11 April 2002 the Wrocław Regional Court convicted the applicant and sentenced him to four years’ imprisonment.
16.  The applicant apparently did not appeal against this judgment and it became final. On an unspecified later date the applicant was released from prison. It appears that in 2005 the applicant remained in detention in connection with another set of criminal proceedings against him.
17.  On 31 May 2000 the Registry received the applicant’s first letter to the Court of 4 April 2000. On the top of the first page of the letter there is a handwritten note: censored (ocenzurowano) and an illegible signature. The envelope in which the letter was delivered bears signs of having been opened and then resealed: one side had been cut open and then resealed with adhesive tape. The envelope bears a handwritten note: R[egional] P[rosecutor] Wrocław (P.O. Wrocław) and a stamp: Wrocław Detention Centre 2000‑04‑10 (Areszt Śledczy we Wrocławiu). The letter had been posted on 27 April 2000.
18.  On 25 August 2005 the applicant complained that the Court’s letter of 27 July 2005 had been censored by the authorities. The original of that letter, submitted by the applicant, is marked on the reverse side with a blue stamp “censored” (cenzurowano).